Learn Spanish (Latin America): Fuimos a un concierto caótico; encima, el parlante no funciona. - We went to a chaotic concert; to make matters worse, the speaker doesn't work.

Word

Fuimos a un concierto caótico; encima, el parlante no funciona.

Meaning

We went to a chaotic concert; to make matters worse, the speaker doesn't work.

Part of speech

sentence

Pronunciation

Course

Spanish (Latin America)

Lesson

Escalating connectors (encima, es más)

Breakdown of Fuimos a un concierto caótico; encima, el parlante no funciona.

no, not

a, an (masculine)

to go

Questions & Answers about Fuimos a un concierto caótico; encima, el parlante no funciona.

How does encima work here, and does it always mean 'to make matters worse'?

Literally, encima means 'on top'. As a connector, it translates to 'on top of that', 'what is more', or 'to make matters worse'. It is used to add information that makes a situation more extreme, surprising, or annoying. Here, it escalates the chaos of the concert by adding another negative detail.

Why does the sentence jump from the past tense (fuimos) to the present tense (funciona)?

This reflects two different time frames. They went to the concert in the past (fuimos), but the speaker is broken right now in the present (no funciona). You do not have to match tenses in a sentence if the facts genuinely belong to different times.

Why use funciona instead of trabaja for the speaker?

In Spanish, trabajar is used for people or animals doing labor. When talking about a machine, device, or system 'working' (meaning it operates correctly and is not broken), you must use funcionar.

Is parlante the standard word for 'speaker' everywhere?

Parlante is the most common word for a loudspeaker in much of South America (like Argentina, Chile, and Colombia). However, regional vocabulary varies widely for this word: in Spain you will usually hear altavoz, and in Mexico, bocina is very common.